Day After Day #136: Pushin' Too Hard

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Pushin' Too Hard (1965)

I was born in the '60s, but late enough in the decade that I had no clue of what was going on until much later. It's been fun to go back and dig into the sheer volume of music that was being made in the mid-'60s by North American kids inspired by the British Invasion as well as the surf rock craze. The music was called garage rock because a lot of these bands were practicing in garages (duh), but it more speaks to the DIY nature of it all: it was mostly kids plugging electric guitars into amps and playing raw and basic three-chord rock songs in the hopes of becoming the next big thing. Eventually, the bands started to get more psychedelic.

A lot of these bands came and went, even if they were lucky enough to have hits. Some had regional hits, some were bigger than that. In 1972, a writer and record store clerk named Lenny Kaye convinced Elektra Records to release a garage rock singles compilation and Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968 was born. Kaye's liner notes include one of the first references to "punk rock." The comp was reissued in 1976 and then in the '80s, Rhino Records issued a series of Nuggets comps.

Nuggets proved extremely influential, not just on future punk bands but also on other compilations. It contains many well-known songs including "Dirty Water" by the Standells, "Psychotic Reaction" by the Count Five, "Night Time" by the Strangeloves, "The Witch" by the Sonics and "Louie Louie" by the Kingsmen. 

Another classic Nuggets track is "Pushin' Too Hard" by the Seeds, a band out of LA led by Sky Saxon on vocals. Saxon wrote the song while sitting in a car waiting for his girlfriend to finish shopping at a supermarket; it doubles as the protagonist speaking out against his girlfriend's controlling ways or in a wider sense, pushing back against society. 

"You're pushin' too hard, pushin' on me/You're pushin' too hard, what you want me to be/You're pushin' too hard about the things you say/You're pushin' too hard every night and day/You're pushin' too hard/Pushin' too hard on me/Well all I want is to just be free/Live my life the way I wanna be/All I want is to just have fun/Live my life like it's just begun/But you're pushin' too hard/Pushin' too hard on me."

The Seeds initially released the song as "You're Pushing Too Hard" in November 1965 and it didn't chart. But after the band's self-titled debut album came out in April 1966, a Los Angeles DJ started playing the song a lot. The band re-released it with the new title "Pushin' Too Hard" in July 1966 and it eventually made the Billboard Hot 100 chart in December, peaking at #36 in February.

The song was banned by some radio stations because they thought it was about a drug pusher. But it became the Seeds' signature song and they based their style around it, so much so that you can hear elements of "Pushin' Too Hard" in many of their later songs. 

"Pushin' Too Hard" is credited as a major influence on punk bands that followed and included on several best-of lists of garage rock songs. It was covered by Pere Ubu, the Bangles, the Rubinoos and the Makers, and parodied by Frank Zappa and the Residents. It's been featured in movies including Easy Rider. Saxon even re-recorded it for his 2008 album The King of Garage Rock.

As for the Seeds, they changed their name to Sky Saxon and the Seeds in 1968, with guitarist Jan Savage and drummer Rick Andridge leaving the band. They released a few more singles, "Mr. Farmer," "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" and "A Thousand Shadows." After splitting up the Seeds in 1972, Saxon joined the Source Family, a Hollywood Hills-based cult led by Father Yod (aka former health food restaurateur James Edward Baker); Father Yod fronted a psychedelic rock band called Ya Ho Wha 13, which released nine albums, but Saxon did not participate (although he later appeared on a few offshoot albums and put together a box set of the group's music). Saxon continued to make music under various band names over the years, and reformed the Seeds in 2003 and then several times after that. He also collaborated with Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins on some songs in 2008. Saxon died in 2009 on the same day as Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett.

Lenny Kaye ended up playing guitar in Patti Smith's band throughout the '70s and rejoined her in the '90s. More recently, he's been leading a tour celebrating Nuggets' 50th (plus a few years) anniversary. It came to The Cut in Gloucester last night for the last night of the tour (I think) and featured an all-star collection of musicians including Peter Buck, Ted Leo, Bill Janovitz, Jon Wurster, Hugo Burnham, Barrence Whitfield, Dave Minehan, Clint Conley, Willie "Loco" Alexander and more. They played "Pushin' Too Hard" and a bunch of other Nuggets tunes, as well as garage-adjacent classics like "I Wanna Be Your Dog," "Kick Out the Jams" and "Road Runner" (all of which have been featured in this space). It was a terrific night all around.